Salem's Little Secret
by JayRayGee
Summary: When Ruby is captured by Tyrian and sent to Salem's lair, she makes a horrific discovery
1. Chapter 1: Capture

**A/N:**

 **Remember when I said 1 – 2 stories a week, well scratch that. Since I posted my last chapter, my homework load has doubled and I have begun looking way harder for a job. So, now in addition to school kicking my ass, life decided to join and it brought a spikey metal bat laced with salt. So, pardon me if chapters start becoming less and less often. I will always try to post at least once a week but it won't always be the same story from the week before.**

 **Speaking of stories, this is a new one. Someone I knew came up with the idea and I asked them if I could write a fanfic about it and then said sure so her I am. This story, as you can read above this, is called Salem's Little Secret. And no, it's not about Salem having a dick as one of my friends thought. It's about Salem having a secret room in her lair that Ruby discovers. Also in this story, Qrow failed to get to Ruby on time in Oniyuri and she was captured by Tyrian. There will be two plot lines. Ruby's plot line and NJR's plot line of trying to save Ruby. Qrow will be with them as well but let's just say they won't think to favorably of him.**

 **Let's begin.**

 **Started Writing: February 11, 2017 at 12:14 A.M.**

Ruby sat in the large white chair that seemed to be made up of entirely Grimm bone. She was seated in front of a large purple table. She looked down towards the floor. The last thing she remembered was lying on the ground in Oniyuri after fighting the scorpion faunus named Tyrian. She remembered looking up at him as his stinger appeared next to him on his shoulder. She looked at him in fear as the rest of her team looked on in horror as they were too weak to fight him. Then, he launched his stinger towards her and her world went black. Now as she sat at the table, her hands bound in her lap, she could only think back to her team and what they were going through right now.

She looked up and was met with seven faces looking at her. She recognized about half of them but the other half were strangers.

To her left was a rather well dressed man. He had a yellow undershirt, a purple over shirt and a large bluish purple coat on and wore a black tie. He wore black fingerless gloves and had green eyes. But the most striking part of him was his large black moustache that seemed to cover his mouth.

Seated next to him about one seat down was a large, bulky man. He had a black undershirt with sleeves that came out to his elbows and a large silver coat on top of that. He had a beard that went around hi entire face and spoke in a low voice.

Seated directly across from him was Tyrian. The psycho scorpion faunus that attacked her and seemed to have poisoned her. He wore a pair of white pants and a white shirt that exposed his chest. He had bandages down his arms and while she couldn't see it now, she knew had a long, extendable scorpions tail.

Seated next to him was her. The one that killed Pyrrha. The one she knew and trusted. Cinder. She now wore a long dress that came all the way down to her mid shin and had the right leg exposed on the side all the way up to her upper thigh. Her hair was blocking the left side of her face where she could see a bandage covering her left eye. Judging by the way Cinder looked at her, she could tell that her eyes was most likely gone. Standing next to her was Emerald and Mercury. She had trusted Emerald, even making small talk at the fairground during the Vytal Festival. Mercury, however, she knew was evil after running into him the day Penny died. She knew he was faking his injury after seeing him walking around but never could have known he was working for Cinder. Emerald too.

And seated at the other end of the table was one of the scariest woman Ruby had ever seen. She was white as snow and had red vine like lines across her arms and she assumed across her entire body. She wore a long black dress and had red eyes. Her hair was white and it had some black, string like structure across the ends.

Ruby looked back down. Her looked towards her left side, right below her rib cage. She could see were Tyrian had struck her and she was beginning to feel a pain in her side. That's when the one of the end spoke up.

"Child," she spoke. Ruby raised her hair to meet her eyes. "I have been informed that your name is Ruby Rose, is that correct?"

Ruby looked up and nodded ever so gently. She was trying to act brave and fearless but she was terrified on the inside.

"Fantastic. Well, now that we know who you are, it would seem appropriate that you learn our names. I'm Salem, that's Watts, that's Hazel, and I believe you already know the rest." Salem said.

Ruby just looked Salem right in the eyes before speaking again. "What do you want from me?"

"Straight and to the point. I admire that. Well child, it's your eyes. They're silver. And we can have that around here." Salem said

"And what do you mean by that?" Ruby asked.

"Well, those known to have silver eyes can do amazing things. But in the wrong hands, or as I see it, the right hands, they can have the power to destroy all of mankind and all his creations. Now, I'm going to assume that you don't want to kill humans and destroy everything, isn't that correct?" Ruby slightly nodded her head. "I guessed as much. Anyways, I want your eyes. I want them ripped out of your skull so that they can never harm any of my wonderful creatures ever again."

Ruby was now showing her fear. She was just told that this person wanted her eyes removed so that she wouldn't do any harm. Ruby stood up in an attempt to show strength but was soon overcome with pain from the stab.

Cinder laughed quietly before speaking again. "Child, don't you understand. Tyrian her poisoned you, right now it only hurts a little from the pain of the puncture alone but soon, the poison will seep through your body, making you weaker and weaker. So, you'll become so weak you won't to be able to move. And that's when your pretty, little eyes are coming out. I want you to suffer for a bit though and make you think about what you've done to my babies, my Grimm. And after I take her eyes out, Cinder, you can do whatever you want with her. Keep her as your little blind slave or torture her until the brink of death but keep her alive. I really don't care, as long as she isn't a problem I have to deal with. Tyrian, show Ms. Rose where she will be staying."

"With pleasure, my queen." Tyrian said before grabbing Ruby by the hair and dragging her off, all while Ruby was kicking and screaming, trying to get free and Tyrian was laughing manically.

Cinder eventually turned her head away from where the screams were coming from and motioned Emerald to come over so she could whisper something to her. After receiving the message, Salem spoke.

"Speak, child."

"Cinder wants to know, how long until she is unable to move?" Emerald asked for Cinder.

"Well, judging how bad she looked, I would give her about 2 weeks. Plenty of time." Salem said.

Cinder once more beckoned Emerald over. Once the message was received, Emerald spoke again.

"Cinder says, not long enough. And that she wants one of her eyes removed a few days before the other one is removed so it can be implanted in her left eye so that she can taunt Ruby before the other eye is removed."

"I like your thinking, Cinder. When she is weak, we will have her left eye removed and implanted where she so negligently took yours. Then, we'll keep her alive and awake so she can see you with it." Salem said with a smile. Cinder smiled back, grinning from ear to ear, giddy with her new plan.

Meanwhile, back at Oniyuri, the remaining members of Team RNJR sat together, trying to recover. Their leader, the one that gave them the strength to fight, was just violently ripped from their hands. All they could do was watch the man that somehow beat all four of them at the same time ran off Ruby Jaune sat, destroyed over losing yet another friend while Ren and Nora comforted each other.

That's when Jaune noticed a bird flying in at an incredible speed. He nudged Ren and Nora and all three of them watch this bird come in and glide right over their heads. It disappeared behind a pillar but it never reemerged. Instead, a man carrying a long sword and wearing a tattered red cape emerged and he seemed angry. He quickly looked left, then right, then at the trio sitting on the ground.

"Where is she?!" He yelled at them.

"Who? Ruby?" Jaune responded.

"Yes! Where is Ruby?" He yelled back.

"Someone…took her. His name was Tyrian. And he mentioned something about his Goddess."

"No…no... Nooo! The man yelled again, this time in anguish.

"Aren't you Qrow? Ruby's uncle?" Ren asked.

Qrow looked at him and said "Yeah. And that man who took my niece works for one of the evilest woman in all of Remnant."

"What does she want with Ruby then?" Nora asked.

"She wants her dead."

 **Author's Note:**

 **Dark, right?**

 **This story is gonna to be more on the darker side. I guess you can tell from how they treat Ruby and what their plans are for her and her eyes. But the worst is yet to come.**

 **I might update Qrow's Little Secret today but I'm having a large party at my house so it might not happen. But I'll try. Also, I now have five ideas for new stories ranging from single chapter stories to smut so stay tuned.**

 **Anyways, Favorite, Follow, and Review.**

 **Finished Writing: February 11, 2017 at 1:28 P.M.**

 **Words: 1.7k**

 **Pages: 4**


	2. Chapter 2: The Room

**A/N: I'm beginning to write this chapter a bit early. Instead of starting on Friday and finishing/publishing on Saturday, I'm starting this one on a Tuesday, giving myself a lot more time to write it out.**

 **Now I'm going to keep this intro short and sweet. My Spring Break starts next week, March 3-12, so I'll try to put out more chapter then. However, after that time period, I will be starting work so that is going to get into the way of this. Along with school and midterms so there is that.**

 **Anyways the story. Second chapter of Salem's Little Secret. This is going to be purely Ruby in this one and the next one is going to be purely RNJR – Ruby + Qrow. But that won't come out for a bit. Do I expect to finish this chapter tonight? No. Will I? Only time will tell. Oh, and no, the secret isn't Salem is Summer. I'm not that petty.**

 **Let's Begin.**

 **Starting Writing: February 28, 2017 at 10:40 P.M.**

So many things hurt right now. Her abdomen, from where Tyrian stabbed her and injected her with poison. Her hair, because Tyrian was dragging her by it. Her face, because after she wouldn't stop resisting, Tyrian had punched her there. In fact, all of her pain was because of Tyrian. He was a grade-a asshole, and he seemed to be enjoying this. He was laughing to himself as he dragged her. Ruby tried to think of something else to distract her from the pain. Her team, she began to think, and how they must feel right now, with her being gone. This thought only made the pain worse. Her family, and how she would never see her again. Nope, pain was still there. She tried thinking of anything, including cookies, but nothing made the pain go away.

"We're here." Tyrian said, a maniacal tone to his voice. Ruby heard a large door open before she was picked up by her hair and thrown, by her hair, into the room. She landed face first and rolled. She clutched her side and rolled back over, a groan escaping her lips, to face her captor. All she saw was Tyrian's face through a little hole in the otherwise completely solid door.

"Have fun in there, my little rose. Oh, and two meals a day. Tata!" Tyrian said before closing the hatch, cutting her off from the rest of the world. She looked around the room she was now in. It was pretty small, probably the size of the bathrooms in the dorm rooms at Beacon. On the opposite wall from door was a torch, the only light source in the room. The bed seemed to be part of the room and was made out of whatever the rest of this place was made from, some type of blackened stone. And there was a hole in the far corner from the bed that what Ruby could only assume was where she would go to the bathroom at.

Ruby looked back at the bed. It didn't have any type of pillow or blanket. In fact, it was just a flat top, no raised area for her head. Ruby sighed. _This is what hell must look like, if this isn't already hell,_ she thought to herself. She decided to just lay down and try to sleep on this thing that was supposed to be a bed. She climbed onto it but soon forgot there was no elevation when she went she slammed the back of her head into the blackened stone. She sat up slightly to rub the sore part of her head and then laid back down, this time putting her right arm back so she could lay on that. She soon fell asleep, her body tired from trying to keep her aura up.

She awoke several hours later, but she couldn't tell what time it was since there was no natural light. There were no windows in this room and the only way to see outside the room was through the slip in the door that could only be opened from the outside. Ruby took another good look around the room and then at herself. Her cape was more torn and tattered now. Her stockings were also more torn and her boots had scuff marks all over them. She looked at her waist and that's when she realized that all her ammo and weapons were gone. How had she not noticed before? She began to think of the places where she would have left her sweetheart. Ruby then remembered that when she fought Tyrian in Oniyuri, she had become separated from it and never got the chance to reconnect. _Well,_ she thought, _at least it's safe with the rest of the team. My team. Jaune, Nora, Ren._ She began to cry for them, remembering the fight with Tyrian, and how he was the one that caused all of this

 _God dammit,_ she thought, _Tyrian is the source of all my problems right now._ And then, as if he heard her, she was startled by a large banging from the other side of the door.

"Wake up, my little angel!" He sang in a happy tone of voice.

"I'm up. What do you want?" Ruby said with spite.

Tyrian gasped sarcastically. "The rose still has some thorns. Not to worry though, they will soon fall off. And if they don't, I'll rip them off! Anyways, here's your first meal." Tyrian said as he opened a smaller sliding hatch around arm level and threw a black piece of meat through it. Because it wasn't on a plate and Ruby was prepared, it landed on the floor with a smacking sound.

"It's Beowulf meat, fresh from the Wasteland below us. I would hurry up and eat it because if you don't, it will fade away." Tyrian said. Ruby looked at the piece of meat on the floor and saw that it was starting to fade. Ruby, who hadn't eaten in well over a day, quickly jumped on it like a ravenous Beowulf and scarfed it down, not stopping for a second.

Tyrian laughed manically as he watched Ruby eat the steak like a hungry Grimm. Ruby only looked up when she finished it. Some of the steak had evaporated in her mouth, leaving her with slightly less steak than she was expecting. "Where's the drink?" she asked.

"Why, my little rose, you only get your drink during dinner, which is in about 12 hours. We are trying to keep you alive, not trying to make you stronger."

"And let me guess. The drink is Grimm blood?" Ruby asked, angrily.

Tyrian once again gasped and even though Ruby could only see his face, she knew he put his hand over his chest in a dramatic action to look offended.

"My, my, no! Straight Grimm blood will kill you. We want you alive when we, well, let's just say, make sure you ever harm one of our Goddesses creatures again. You will be given water."

"Oh, that's not that…" Ruby began.

"In a bowl. Like the animal you are!" Tyrian said in a happy but angry tone.

 _Yep. There's the catch._ Ruby said to herself. Of course, they won't just give her a glass of water. It had to be served in some type of demeaning fashion. Ruby wondered if she had to drink it like a dog as well.

"Well, I'll see you later, my little rose." Tyrian said as he left, but not before slamming his scorpion tail into the door, causing a loud banging noise that startled Ruby and made the door shake.

Ruby laid her head again the wall opposite to the door and sighed deeply. The abnormal raise in her chest cause her to wince, making her remember her wound on her chest. She touched it, which had now bleed through her bandage that was on there and it made her wince a bit more. She remembered waking up with the bandage, all fresh and clean, meaning that once she got to wherever she was, someone had made sure she wouldn't die from bleeding out and covered the wound. But now the bandage was all dirty and the wound had bleed through, leaving an abnormal blueish purple mark on it. She doubted that she would get new bandages anytime soon so for right now she would have to live with it being dirty.

Ruby looked up and noticed something. There was a bit more light emanating from the door. She moved over to it and noticed the door was slightly ajar. She tried moving it with her hand and it began to open a nit. Ruby realized that she could escape if she wanted. Ruby needed to act fast if she wanted to escape without being caught.

Ruby silently opened the door and peeked her head out. She looked left, then right, then left again, then right again. The coast was clear. Ruby opened the door just enough for her to slip out then closed it just enough to make it look like it was fully closed. She left it like this in case she needed to slip back into the room for any reason so as not to be caught. Ruby looked down both directions of the hallway and decided to go right.

She tried to move stealthily so she wouldn't be seen but her boots clicking against the floor wasn't really helping. But she kept on moving anyways, trying to find a room to the outside. She didn't quite know here this place was and the only hint she got was Tyrian calling the outside the wasteland. There were windows in the large room with the large table that she awoke in but because she was strapped to the chair, she couldn't really go over to see what the outside looked like.

As she kept on moving down the halls, she realized that the doors were few and far between and the only rooms she found so far were rooms like hers. Soon, she came across a staircase that only lead up, leaving Ruby to concluded that she was in the basement or bottom floor. She slowly made her way up the stairs, not only because she was trying to be silent, but also because every time she lifted her legs, her abdomen would hurt just a bit.

As she reached the top of the stairs and looked around, she noticed that there were more doors up here. These doors seemed to be made of wood, instead of iron like the ones on the lower level. Ruby didn't want to open the doors haphazardly and run the chance of running into someone since she was positivity that everyone in this place was an enemy so she had to be careful.

The first door she opened seemed to lead to a small dining room. It was about the size of a dorm room at Beacon. On the opposite wall was another door that Ruby guessed it must have led to a kitchen. Even though Ruby was still hungry, she decided not to pursue it in the hopes she wouldn't be caught. She came across another set of doors. This seemed to lead to an empty room that held nothing in it. There was a long hallway that led to a hexagon shaped room. Ruby was about to enter until she saw and heard some Grimm, followed by some fire and then a dead Boarbatusk fell over and began to disappear. Ruby knew someone was in there, probably training so she promptly left.

Ruby kept passing more and more doors, some leading to bedrooms and others leading to what seemed like empty rooms. Ruby was beginning to lose hope and was becoming more paranoid by the minute. She didn't expect it to take this long to find an exit but as it turned out, this place was way bigger than she expected.

Right as she was about to give up, Ruby came across one final set of doors. They were large, wooden doors with metal frames. They stood about 15 feet tall, bigger than most of the doors in the building. They were made out a slightly brighter color of wood, but still on the darker side, just like everything else in the building. But it was the sign that hung above the door that caught Ruby's eyes.

It was made from the same type of wood but inside of a metal frame, it was held in a golden frame. It hung by a rope from an outcropping in the wall that seemed to be a part of the wall. There were two words on the sign itself, made of polished silver letters.

 _Trophy Room_ Ruby read to herself as she read it the words on the sign. Now genuinely intrigued by this, she went it, knowing that it most likely didn't lead to the outside.

Ruby opened the door but turned around once inside the room to make sure the door would close and silently as possible. Once the door was closed, Ruby turned back around. She froze in fear as she saw what could only be described as a horrible nightmare come true.

 **Author's Note:**

 **Aww, cliffhangers, don't you just love them.**

 **Now I know that some of you will be commenting/reviewing guessing as to what is in the room. If you do that, just know that I will not be responding to it to tell you if you are right or wrong, you just must wait until the next chapter comes out. But if you remember, I said the next chapter is going to be on the other members of Team RNJR and Qrow so you actually have to wait two chapters. So, ha-ha!**

 **I would also like to shoutout SHDOofaRooster and Amity_Jack for proofreading this. I could have done it but I'm lazy. Plus, they might have an idea for some changes or something that needs to be reworded.**

 **Also, life just decided to blindside me with a boxing glove covered in barbed wire considering my car just bit the bullet and will no longer start so now I need a new one. Which means now I have even more weight on my shoulder to get a job since my parents will be paying for it and I want to pay them back, cause I'm a nice guy to the ones who I love.**

 **Anyways, Follow, Favorite, and Review**

 **Finished Writing: March 2, 2017 at 12:16 A.M.**

 **Words: 2.4k**


	3. Chapter 3: Team NJR plus Qrow

**A/N**

 **See, you would think after working on a school project for 2 hours and it being 1:45 Monday morning and I have class at 9, that I wouldn't want to write. But you don't know me. I guess I'm just on a productive high right now.**

 **Anyways, the story. This story has quickly grown to be one of my most popular stories at the moment. I guess people just love a good cliffhanger to keep them coming back. And you know what I feel like doing? Keep you readers waiting to see what's in the room until NEXT chapter because this chapter is all about the rest of Ruby's team + Qrow and what they are dealing with. Haha! Don't you just love me? TO THE STORY!**

 **Started Writing: March 27, 2017 at 1:49 A.M.**

Qrow walked at an abnormally fast pace, followed by Jaune, Nora, and then Ren bringing up the rear. Qrow was a good five steps in front of the smaller group and he was visible tense and angry. His sword dragged against the dirt road as his shoulders were tense. Meanwhile behind him, Jaune had a look of confusion, yet anger, while Ren and Nora just looked at the ground, occasionally looking at each other or the other two.

"So, let me get this straight…" Jaune said. Qrow exhaled deeply upon hearing this. "You've been following us for the past 6 months, not lending a helping hand during hard times or leading us on the right path when we were lost. Just, watching us, from afar?" Jaune questioned.

"Yes. I stalked you for half a year. Anything else?" Qrow said with spite.

"Actually, yes. There are a few more things I want answered. Like HOW, THE FUCK can you turn into a bird?!" Jaune said, angrily.

Qrow stopped walking, which made the Jaune and the rest of them stop as well. "That's not important to the task ahead, kid." Qrow replied.

"Uh, kinda is because it would explain a lot." Jaune said.

"Let's just say that were I come from, it's normal." Qrow said.

"That doesn't help in any ways but it seems that is the best I'm going to get out of you." Jaune said with a disappointed yet angry tone. "How about how you were able to see us and follow us for 6 MONTHS, yet when Ruby needed you the most, you dropped the fucking ball!"

Suddenly, Qrow lunged towards Jaune with his sword raised and stopped right before the tip of his sword hit Jaune's neck. Jaune had barely flinched but had grabbed the hilt of his sword in a defensive move. "Listen here, motherfucker. I promised someone a long time ago that I would keep her safe. And unless you want me put you in as deep of a hole as she is in currently, I would shut you fucking mouth." Qrow said, ready to end Jaune life with a single slash.

"Well then, if you want to keep that promise, then you better start explaining yourself, birdman." Jaune said. He then, in a surprise move, took his sword out of its sheath and batted Qrow's sword away. The two starred each other down, waiting for the other to make the first move. Qrow finally turned around and began walking again, but stopped after just a few steps.

"You don't need to follow me. I can do this by myself. You can just leave." He said.

"And do what?! She was our friend, our teammates, our leader. Do you really think we are just going to walk away from this? Hell no! We are going to find her, whether you like it or not." Jaune replied.

"Alright then, if you want to come with me, then shut your mouths and follow me." Qrow said, before turning to walk again.

"Do you have any idea where you are going?" Jaune asked.

"I have a…general idea." Qrow replied. "What did I just say about shutting you god damn mouths!" Qrow said. Before turning again and beginning to walk away.

"This woman…" Nora said, surprising everyone, as she hadn't said a word since Ruby was captured. "What does she want with Ruby?"

"I thought I told you, she wants her dead." Qrow said.

"But, why? Ruby hasn't done anything to piss anyone off, has she?" Nora said, worried.

Qrow sighed, putting his sword away before walking towards side of the road where there were some logs. He motioned for them to come and sit. The three gave each other a look of confusion, but obeyed.

"Ruby, is special. And not in the 'everyone is special in their own unique way' kind of way. She is actually special." He said. The three looks at him with a mix of confusion and wonder.

"Of course, she is special, she got into Beacon two years early. It wasn't easy." Jaune said.

"No, you idiot. She is a whole different kind of special. Tell me, what color are her eyes?" Qrow asked.7

The three looked at each other, still confused. Ren was the one to answer. "She has silver eyes. A birth defect, if I'm correct. Not enough melanin in the eyes. Very rare." He said.

"Well, you're right on a couple of things. It is very rare and it is a birth defect but there is way more to it than that." Qrow said.

"What more is there? And how is this related to her capture?" Jaune said, a bit on anger in his tone.

"I'm getting there, kid. One more question: How many of you had heard the tale of the silver eye warriors?" Qrow questioned the trio.

Nora was the one who answered this time. "It's an old fairy tale Ren told me once. Warrior born with silver eyes that could kill a Grimm just by looking at it." Nora said.

"Correct. Now, in Remnant, there are tons of myths and stories. Some true, some untrue…" Qrow stopped himself. That's when he saw the gear turning in Jaune's head.

"No…" He said.

"The story of the silver eyes, true. And guess which teammate of yours found a way to activate it the night Beacon fell?" Qrow said.

"Is that's why…" Ren began.

"…There is a dragon Grimm frozen on top of Beacon tower? Yep, she froze it, just by looking at it. And by doing that, she painted a huge target on her back. I would say a red target but, well, you know."

"And this woman's name? What is it? You never told us." Ren spoke up.

"Well, I didn't deem it that important but if you must know. Her name is Salem. Think of her as Cinder's boss, except she is 10x worse. She wants what happened at Beacon to happen everywhere across Remnant. She wants to rule over it and kill anyone who stands in her way. And right now, Ruby is like a huge boulder to her." Qrow said, standing up. The trio stood up as well.

"If you are going to save Ruby from Salem, then we are coming too. She is our friend and we won't leave her to die." Jaune said, pulling his sword from his sheath.

"Yeah!" Nora said, removing her weapon from her back. Ren only nodded as he grabbed his weapons and held them up.

"It's not that easy. We can't just go save Ruby." Qrow said.

"What, wait?! Why not?! We just go attack Salem's base and…" Jaune said.

"No one knows where Salem lives!" Qrow said, cutting Jaune off.

"W…what do you mean by that?" Jaune lowered his sword upon hearing this.

"No one, except those who Salem trusts, knows where she lives. All we know that is it somewhere in Remnant. But we don't know what continent or what island or even what direction to go in. Hunter and Huntress have spent their entire lives looking for where she is held up and we are no closer than where we were when we started." Qrow said, looking at the ground.

"So, that's it? You tell us all this and get us all pumped up just to say that finding Ruby is impossible? That we might as well just forgive and forget? What about the person you promised all those years ago, that you would keep Ruby safe?! Huh?! Are you going to dig her up and apologize for lying to her?!" Jaune was basically yelling at Qrow now.

"Jaune, please…" Nora tried to plead with him.

"No! This man is a huge piece of shit! He gets us all happy just to stab us in the heart! Probably what's going to happen to Ruby." Jaune looked at Qrow with disgust.

Suddenly, Qrow grabbed his sword from where he put in on his back and took a swing at Jaune, who for the most part, was expecting something like that, but was still slow to counter him. Jaune jumped back and readied his sword and shield, preparing for a fight. But instead of seeing a man with the look for bloodlust in front of him, he saw what was left a broken man, tears streaming down his face. Qrow was clearly trying to hide it, but it was obvious he was failing. Jaune's face of determination and readiness to fight faded when he saw this. Instead, he took a deep breath and lowered his sword and shield. "Come on guys, let's go." He said, turning to face Ren and Nora. "Let's go find one of those trusted advisors and beat the information out of them." They looked at Qrow, who was wiping away the tears, then back at Jaune, before falling in behind him.

Suddenly, Qrow's face changed from sadness and anger to realization. "Wa…wait…wait a minute!" he cried out to the trio, who stopped. Jaune turned to face him.

"Look man, I'm sorry for what I said but I really don't like you right now, so it would be best if I didn't have to look at you." Jaune said, turning away from him.

"I know someone who can lead us to Salem." Qrow called out.

Jaune, who had begun to start walking again, stopped dead. He turned around once more to face Qrow, this time with intrigue on his face.

"I know someone who can lead us right to Salem's lair. Even get us inside unnoticed!" Qrow said.

"Who?!" Jaune called back, taking a few steps forward.

"You're not going to like it, though…" Qrow said.

"Who? Is? It?" Jaune replied, some anger in his tone for being lead on.

"My sister…"

 **Author's Note:**

 **A roller coaster of emotions there, amiright?**

 **So, that really set the tone of the relationship between team NJR and Qrow for this story. Kind of a forced yet voluntary team. Qrow using them as willing fighters, Jaune not knowing whether to trust Qrow or not and Nora and Ren just there, wanting their friend back. Neither side likes the other too much but they have to work together to get what they want. Sounds cliché but it's whatever.**

 **Next chapter you will FINALLY learn what is in the room but I have to update my other stories first. That being said,**

 **Follow, Favorite, and Review**

 **Finished Writing: March 27, 2017 at 6:57 P.M.**

 **Words: 1.8k**


	4. Chapter 4: The Jars

**A/N:**

 **So, it's been a long minute. And by minute, I mean 4 months. Life has its ways of fucking you over. That's all I'm really going to say on that front. You've been waiting a while for this so let's just get right to it**

Ruby opened the door but turned around once inside the room to make sure the door would close as silently as possible. Once the door was closed, Ruby turned back around. She froze in fear as she saw what could only be described as a horrible nightmare come true.

Lining the walls of the large, open room were large glass jars. They each were filled with some type of greenish clear liquid and had a gold lid on top of them. They sat upon marble pedestals about 4 feet high each. The pedestals were spaced evenly apart and had a golden engraved plaque at the top of them. But it was what's in each of the jars that had Ruby frozen in her place.

Inside each jar was a set of eyes. Silver eyes. For the most part they were perfectly intact, the optic nerve still attached and hanging loosely from the eyes which were suspended perfectly in the center of the jar, almost like magic. They seemed to be staring at Ruby as she began to walk into the room. She passed jar after jar of perfectly still set of silver eyes. While most were white and intact, some had blemishes, mainly little blood spots where the eye had been pierced. For some reason, they were always on the side of the eyeball or even closer to the back.

But the eyes weren't the only thing on the pedestal. On the top, there was the golden engraved plaque. It read out a name, presumably the name the of eyes previous owner. Ruby began to read them aloud to herself as she slowly passed by.

 _Brann Scaldor_ one plaque read. _Nilla Gemstone_ another one read. Ruby continued deeper into the room, only her curiosity allowing her to make it this far. She was otherwise plagued with fear as she walked.

The room was fairly big but was also kind of skinny. It reminded her of the room she woke up in, the meeting room is what Ruby called it. But while that one seemed to be adorned with magnificently creepy sculptures and melted candles, this room was more plain, the pedestal seemed to be the only real decoration in the room.

However, as Ruby continued onward, she began to notice each pedestal, along with having the eyes and the plaque, they had something Ruby could on really describe as a souvenir from the person's life. Most of the time it was a ring or a necklace, draped over and around the jar, hanging off the front in front of the plaque. Sometimes it was a logo or insignia, mostly likely the person's emblem or maybe even their team's emblem. Sometimes, it was even a bit more. A piece of clothing, hung up on a hanger, usually caked in blood that seemed to have come from either the head or neck region, based on how the blood seemed to flow downwards.

As Ruby was staring at one of the blood caked pieces of clothing, she bumped into a pedestal at the back of the room. It wobbled slightly before returning to its stationary position. Ruby stumbled backwards and landed on her butt. She rubbed her head in the place she collided with the pedestal before looking up at the pedestal. It was at this moment she regretted becoming curious and wished she had never left her small cell. On the pedestal was a pair of silver eyes, these, way more beat up and bloodshot than any other set in the entire room. Almost like this person had been struggling during the removal process. But draped over the jar was not a necklace or ring, but a hood and cape. A white hood and cape with red coloring on the inside. And pinned to the bottom left corner was a logo. Ruby's logo.

"N-N-No… "Ruby began to slowly scramble backwards, her eyes panning down to the name on the plaque despite her entire body telling her to just run. As she reached the name on the plaque, her body screamed to close her eyes and not look, but Ruby keep staring. Finally, her eyes stopped, reading the two words engraved onto the golden plaque:

 _Summer Rose_

Upon reading this, Ruby listened to what her body had been saying and went to turn and run to the door. However, instead of Ruby towards the door, she ran directly into another pedestal, this time giving it enough energy to send the jar and the souvenir flying onto the ground. The jar shattered, sending the eyes rolling across the floor and the liquid slowly racing after them. Ruby sat up with her eyes closed and began to rub her head again, hitting it in the same spot. As Ruby opened her eyes, she realized she was looking back at the pedestal where her mom's eyes were staring at her. Ruby quickly blocked her line of sight from them but then took another look after something next to the pedestal caught her attention.

It was another pedestal but this one shorter than all the others. It was only about 3 feet tall instead of 4. It also seemed to be missing something. That's when Ruby realized the only thing on the pedestal was an empty jar. No silver eyes, no souvenir, just an empty jar. The pedestal was also closer to Summer's than all the others, almost like it was a mini version of Summer's. Ruby panned her eyesight down the plaque and was once frozen in pure fear by what she read.

The plaque simply read:

 _Ruby Rose_

Ruby couldn't move. She couldn't stop staring at what was in front of her. Salem wanted her eyes just so she could put them on display in some type of sick, fucked up museum. She had to get out of here and quick. She turned to run and didn't look back, she stepped barefooted into some of the broken glass, but she didn't care. She just needed to run and -

 _THUMP_

Ruby ran face first into what she thought was another pillar but this one felt softer for some reason, she opened her eyes and saw the ghostly white face of Salem staring back down at her.

"And just what the fuck do you think you're doing, young lady?!" Salem said in a loud, angry voice. Salem slapped Ruby across the face, hitting her right where she had previously hit her head twice before. Now that spot was beginning to bleed a little.

"I didn't mind you coming in here. I had planned to show it to you in a few days anyways. But then you had to go and knock over and break poor Steele Mead's jar. He was a good fighter, probably one of the best I've faced in a while. At least you didn't break his necklace."

Salem knelt down and picked up a necklace. It was small and golden colored and had a golden heart locket at the end.

She opened it up to reveal two small pictures inside and bent over to show Ruby.

"This was his wife." Salem said, pointing to a photo of an older looking woman, probably in her late 20s or early 30s. "And this was his kid." She then pointed to a picture of a young boy, probably no older than 10. "Now these were taken when they were younger of course and it's been many years since then.

Whoever this boy was is probably dead by now" Salem said with a smirk.

Ruby just stared at her, struck by fear and confusion. "W-w-w-w-w…" Ruby stuttered.

"Come on girl! Out with it!" Salem said with a raised voice.

"W-w-why? Why do all of this? What's the point?" Ruby said, tears running down her face.

"To answer that, I ask you this: Why do big game Grimm hunters keep what they kill as trophies?" Salem responded

"Umm, I don't know." Ruby said.

"To remind themselves that the ones at the top of the food chain are no match for the ones that created the food chain. Now time to go back to your cell."

Salem picked Ruby by the hair, Ruby crying out in pain and trying to resist but soon gave up. The poison in her body was making her weak and after seeing this, she was too weak to really fight back. Still, it really hurt but all Ruby could do was softly whimper as she was basically dragged back to her cell by her hair. She looked back as she was being dragged passing all the jar, disembodied eyes staring at her at her, calling out to her, saying she was next. She looked up and saw what was left of her mom staring back at her. Even though the eyes showed no emotion, Ruby could tell that her moms were crying. After being dragged out of the room, she closed her eyes and began to weep to herself.

After a minute, the movement stopped. She heard the sound of a heavy door opening and next the thing she felt was the sensation of being thrown. She made no attempt to open her eyes or brace herself. So, she landed hard against the floor, bouncing once before coming to rest against the back wall.

"This is usually the part when I would hit you for not being ladylike and crying so much but I've seen how hard this can be so, I'll be nice and let you cry yourself to sleep. But only this once!" Salem said and with that, she slammed the door shut, making a loud thud, and making Ruby jump. Ruby then heard the sound of multiple locks being turned soon followed by the sound of Salem walking away.

But Ruby didn't open her eyes. It didn't matter if her eyes were opened or closed. All she could see were all those eyes, staring at her, calling her name. Her mother's eyes, the woman who gave her life for Ruby. This was all that was left. Her eyes and her cape, kept in some sick fucks trophy room.

 _Salem would have to pay. She has to die._ Ruby thought to herself as she opened her eyes. _Salem is right. It wasn't lady-like to cry all the time._ Ruby began to stand up. _I need to fight back. I need to…_

A sudden pain which felt like Ruby had just been shot in the stomach made her collapse. Ruby cried out in pain as she lifted her shirt. On the front lower left of her stomach was a large black, blue, and purple spot. The spot where Tyrian had poisoned her with his tail. It was visibly twitching and a yellow-ish was beginning to be seen extending from the large spot. Ruby tried standing again but this time didn't even make it to her hands and knees before brought back to the ground by this pain. The pain made Ruby start to cry again. Ruby once again closed her eyes and thought to herself

 _Better start learning how to be blind…_

 **Author's Note:**

 **So, how you guys been?**

 **I know what you're going to say. It's been so long since I wrote, anything. There is a good explanation to that. It's called Writer's Block. This time around it fucked me in so many ways. The main thing I came to realize was that, I was getting bored. Writing was beginning to become more of a job I was being forced to do than a casual hobby. But then I realized I wasn't bored of writing, I was bored of writing these stories. They seemed bland and uneventful so they weren't drawing in my attention. Couple that with college and a near full time job and you have the perfect recipe for inactivity. And it wasn't just this site. All the social media I used was being affected. But don't worry. I not gonna stop writing anytime soon. I've gotten back into the mood and should have a new one shot out in a somewhat decent manner of time.**

 **Anyways, speaking of social media, I have a discord server you can join if you want. I know, shameless self-promotion plug. But this is kind of different, I guess. If you even wanted to talk to me about my stories, now's the chance. The server is appropriately named Writer's Block and the link is** /axPHRX2 **. Right now, it's just me, a few other writers, and some friends so if you want to come by and chat, you're welcome to.**

 **Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed this extremely delayed chapter and you'll forgive me for my inactivity.**


	5. Chapter 5: A Raven Known by it's Song

**So, in between the last RNJR chapter and this one, so much was revealed about Salem and Qrow and Raven that it kinda throws a wrench into the plot of this story. For me, at least. I'm going to keep my ideas for how Qrow and Raven know Cinder and not follow the canon, even though the two are completely different.**

"So, your sister works for Salem?" It was Nora asking the questions this time. It had only been a few hours since Qrow revealed his sister knew Salem and night had fallen since. The group sat around a small campfire. Qrow sat on a log drinking from a flask while the other three sat on the ground. If someone were to find them, it would have looked like a granddad telling his grandkids stories from his past.

"Worked. -ed. It's past tense kid. But yes, there was a time when my sister worked for the evilest person on Remnant." Qrow said.

"But why did she do it?" Ren asked.

"Well remember when I said where I come from, turning into birds is normal. Well where I come from is a small tribe of people. And while we have it good now, we weren't always in a good place. You see, my everyone in my tribe has one thing in common. We can all transform into some sort of animal."

"So, not just birds?" Jaune chimed in.

"Yes. That's what any other animal means. Bears, tigers, birds, gophers, any animal you can name and at least someone in my tribe right now or at some point can transform into that animal. And we all play a roll. The ones that are tigers and other predatory creatures are mainly used for attack, or need be, defense. The ones like me and my sister are mainly used for spying or stealth since we are small and quiet." Qrow went on.

"But how can you do that?" Nora asked.

"Think of us like a mix between human and faunas. We look human, but our semblances allow us to transform into animals, like a faunas. It's some type of genetic defeat during the evolution of man from dust. It's like the best of both worlds in a way."

"But what's time have to do with your sister and more importantly, Salem?" Jaune said, a little annoyed.

"I'm getting there, kid. Like I said earlier, we weren't always as set as we are now. For a while, we were almost nomadic, constantly moving and changing locations in order to stay safe. That is, until my sister came along. You see, for as long as we could remember, the tigers and bears were always in charge of the tribe since they were seen as the toughest and bravest amongst everyone. That is, until my sister decided to prove otherwise. She quickly rose the ranks of out tribe, out-besting some of the best predatory people in our clan until finally she became the first non-predatory leader of the clan. At first, I was all for it. It finally gave us lower end of the food chain tribe members some credit. But I soon began to regret that feeling. Soon, we began attacking villages and people just for coming too close to us. And it was during one of these raids that we may have killed one of Salem's top men." Qrow said before taking a slip from his flask.

"So, Salem decided to pay a visit." Ren said.

"Exactly. And it was during this visit that she gave Raven a choice. Either join her or perish. And since none of us wanted to see what an afterlife looked like, Raven agreed. Thus, began the five years where whenever Salem needed a spy, Raven was always dispatched. It was during this five years that I slowly grew apart from the tribe. I'm there less and less often, participating in less and less raids and overall, growing apart from the people I called family, even my sister. SO, one day, after not being there in over two months, I decide it's best to split ways and leave. However, we I arrive there, I find the place in ruins basically, only a few people left, scrounging around for whatever they could find. They all gave me dirty looks, so I found Raven. She told me that Salem decided she wasn't useful anymore and attacked the tribe. Luckily, or unlikely depending on how you look at it, Raven and some of the higher ups were out on a scouting mission when it happened. They were the only survivors. She then told me to leave and never come back or try to find them since I had basically betrayed them. Which was fine by me."

"I'm surprised. You included the part where you betrayed your family." A female voice made Jaune, Ren and Nora jump and grab their weapons while Qrow just sat there, taking a quick slip from his flask.

"If you're going to be condescending, at least have the nerve to show yourself." Qrow said, setting the flask on the log before standing up.

Soon, a tall female figure emerged from shadows. She wore a deep V-neck dark red and black shirt with a black pair of slacks and black heels. She had mixed dark red and black beads around her neck. Her black hair was both long and bushy and there was a small red and white bandana tied off at the top of her head, looking like it was holding her hair.

"Kids, meet my asshole sister, Raven. Raven, met whiny bitch and soon-to-be couple." Qrow said in a sarcastic tone. Jaune, Nora and Ren lowered their weapons and just kinda looked at Qrow. "So, what brings you here?" He asked.

"What? I can't check in every once in a while?" Raven responded with a smirk.

"I find that hard to believe." Qrow said, crossing his arms.

"Well for once in my life I'm actually telling the truth, somewhat." Raven said.

"Somewhat?" Qrow questioned.

"I wanted to see if you had died yet." Raven said bluntly.

"Okay, I believe that." Qrow said, nodding.

"Are you done asking questions? Cause I got a few of my own." Raven said.

"For now. And let me guess, you want to know why I'm telling these kids own story?" Qrow responded.

"That and a few other things, yes." Raven said.

"Whiny bitch. You tell her." Qrow gestured to Jaune, who just sighed.

"Our friend, she's been taken by Salem. And Qrow said you can take us to her. Please." Jaune tried to sound professional but a bit of desperation came through.

Raven just looked to Qrow in confusion. "So, you want me to drop everything, leave the tribe for days, maybe even weeks, just to save some random girl?!" Raven said, grabbing the handle of her weapon, like she was preparing for an attack.

"It's Ruby." Qrow said, monotone. Raven's eyes widened a bit and her look on her face changed from a look of anger to realization and calm. She removed her hand from her weapon and turned away from the group.

"I always feared you would tell me something like this." Raven said, her voice quiet.

"Wait, Raven knows Ruby?" Ren asked. Qrow looked down at the three kids who looked back and him with surprised and confusion.

"Yeah, I know all about your friend. And her powers." Raven said.

"So, you know the amount of trouble she's in!" Jaune replied.

"Yes. But I also know she's a lost cause." Raven said, some spite in her voice.

"Wha…W-Why?" Jaune said, confusion in his voice.

"Let me answer your question with another one. How long has Salem had Ruby?"

"A day or two." Ren replied.

Raven blew some air from her nose and gave a small laugh.

"What's so funny?!" Jaune yelled.

"If Salem has had Ruby for 2 days, then there is little chance she's still alive." Raven said, talking down to Jaune.

"If they were a normal person, yes. But Ruby has silver eyes remember?" Qrow said to Raven, who looked up at him.

"Yeah. And she also threw a wrench into Salem's plans. I'm surprised she didn't have her killed on sight!" Raven said back to Qrow, her voice raised.

"This is also true. But we both know what Salem does to Silvered Eyed Warriors." Qrow said, giving Raven a look. Raven looked back at him, trying to understand what he was saying. "You know, the room, with the…"

Suddenly, it clicked in Raven's brain and she cut Qrow off. "Got it." Raven said aloud. "Slow and painful." she said to herself.

"Wait. What room? With what in it?" Nora asked, worried.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Qrow said, sullenly.

"No. I do want to know. What is in that…" Jaune began.

"Hey!" Raven said, cutting Jaune off this time. "I don't know about him, but trust me, you DON'T want to know. Let's just say that your friend has more time than most, but she's going to wish she didn't."

"Then we got to hurry." Ren said, sounding almost panicked.

"Not so fast. Just because you pulled a few heart strings doesn't mean I'm going to help. I still have a tribe to run." Raven said, beginning to turn away.

"But Qrow said you could help us get Ruby back. Please." Nora said, her eyes beginning to water.

"I'm sorry. I just can't." Raven said, her back fully turned to the group now.

"Please. You're our only hope." Ren said, for once sounding desperate.

"She's a lost cause…" Raven just shook her head, not looking at the group.

"Raven listen to me." Qrow said. "You may not know these kids or Ruby that well. But I made a promise to Summer a long time ago that I would make sure Ruby stayed safe. And I don't want to go back on that promise now."

Raven knew Qrow was talking, but she had tuned him out. She had her eyes closed, remembering seeing what happened. Remembering seeing Summer in that chair. Remembering what they did to her. Remembering Summer looking right into her eyes right before…

"Raven!" Qrow's sudden change of voice snapped her out of her trance. She opened her eyes again and felt a tear fall from one of her eyes. She quickly wiped it away, making it look like she was fixing her hair before turning back to the group. "Alright. You got me. I'll help." The teens trio of faces lit up and Qrow let out a tired, yet happy sigh. "But we're going to need a plan and we're going to need to act fast."

"Ooh! I got one!" Nora said, excited." Why don't we climb onto your backs, and then you transform into birds, and we ride you to Salem's lair?!" Nora said, a smile on her face. Qrow and Raven looked at each other, then back at Nora. "What?" Nora asked, the smile fading. They looked back at each other.

"Do you want to tell her or should I?" Qrow sarcastically said to Raven. Raven just shook her head before responding.

"One, no that won't work cause our powers only work on us and what we're wearing. Two, even if we could do that, we're small birds, not giant eagles. You would crush it instantly."

Ohhhhhh." Nora said, realization hitting her in the face.

"Then our only other option is to walk." Ren said.

"That could take another 6 months. Raven's right. There's no hope." Jaune said defeated.

"There actually is a third option." Qrow said, looking towards Raven.

"Nope. Not happening." Raven said, shaking her head.

"Oh, come on. It's our only hope. Don't chicken out." Qrow said.

"I'm not doing it because I'm scared. I'm not doing it cause the bond is weak. We could end up in the middle of the Grimm fields and never stand a chance." Raven said.

"What are you two talking about?" Nora asked.

"Raven's semblance her is portals. Once she forms a bond with someone, she can create a portal them at any time. And when she worked for Salem…" Qrow said.

"She formed a bond with Salem, meaning she can create a portal to Salem." Ren said.

"Ding. Ding, Ding." Qrow said.

"But like I said, the bond is weak, if not nonexistent. Even if I do get a portal to form, we could end up miles away or die immediately. Do we all understand that?" Raven asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Alright. We leave tomorrow." Raven said. In one quick motion, she grabbed her weapon and swung it, creating a portal.

"Wait. Why not now? You already have the portal." Jaune asked, ready to fight.

"Cause one, you guys are going to need a full night's sleep for this, and two, this portal leads to the tribe. I must tell them I'll be gone for a few days." Raven replied.

"And how do we not know you're not just going to run?" Qrow asked.

"Because I failed Summer once. I'm not going to again."

 **Author's Note:**

 **So, because of what I stated in the foreword, this chapter was difficult to write. There isn't much else for me to say beside finding time is tough right now to make these stories.**

 **Anyways, Follow, Favorite, and Review**


	6. Chapter 6: Tumor Removal

Salem sat at the large blackened quartz table sprawled across her meeting room. She sat there, twirling a small knife in her hands like she had been doing so for thousands of years. She wasn't paying any real attention to what the knife was doing and was more or less just lost in her own thoughts. You would think for someone with that much power would have a ton to think about, but Salem only had a few things running wild in her mind. The first being Ozpin. Cinder had said she had killed him, which she believed. But she knew he would reincarnate at some point, she just didn't know when. And once that happened, the cycle of her killing him would start anew. Still, deep down, she still kinda loved him. She did reminisce on the simpler times when they were both mortals who cared and loved one another. But like always, she repressed those memories as they would become too painful to think about.

Next were the relics. She knew where they were but knew she couldn't access them without the maidens. She had tried before in the past to access them without the aide of the maidens but like always, was unsuccessful. However, times were different, and with the fall maiden on her side, she could perhaps once and for all secure the relics and enact her revenge on the gods. But that was still years away, and there were more pressing matters at hand, which leads to her final thought.

Ruby. She had proven to be quite the fighter. It had been nearly two weeks since she was captured and poisoned, but she still held on to much more strength than even Salem thought possible. Not only was her aura still incredibly high for someone in her current state, that being deadly poison wreaking havoc on her insides, but she could still use her silver eye powers, which Salem had seen first hand after trying to "increase the rate at which she was dying" by letting small Grimm lose in her cell, to which she almost immediately killed with her eyes.

Still, she could take solace in knowing that the poison was still doing it's job. Her violent outbursts and resisting had decreased significantly since she was first brought in and overhaul was tamer and calmer when it was feeding time. However, at this rate, it could take months before she was ready for the removal process.

As Salem was beginning to think of more ways to speed up the process, the large wooden doors opened up and Cinder walked into the room and made her way towards Salem.

"Ah, Cinder. What can I do for you?" Salem asked, beckoning Cinder to sit down next to her and placing the knife on the table next to her.

"It's Ruby." Cinder replied.

"I was just thinking about her. What happened? Did she try and escape again? Also, I see those speech lessons have been going well." Salem asked.

"They have, thanks for noticing. And no. She doing fine for once. I was just wonder how long this process takes?" Cinder responded.

"Well, in all honestly, it shouldn't take this long. I have to admit, Ruby is one hell of a fighter. Still, she can't hold out forever." Salem said, picking the knife back up.

"Is there anyway to, speed things up?" Cinder asked, an evil grin on her face.

"Well, we've tried all the usual methods, and nothing seems to work. Do you have any ideas?" Salem asked.

"Well I had one." Cinder replied, which got the attention of Salem. "Remember how you said I could get one of her eyes as a sort of payback?" Cinder said.

"Why of course." Salem replied.

"Well, I was thinking. If we removed one of eyes now, then both her mental and strength would drain even quicker, causing her aura to drain and then she'd probably give up within a few days." Cinder explained.

"Hmmm. I like the way that sounds. However, she is still too powerful at the moment. She can still access her silver eye powers, which could wreak havoc on both you and me, since we both have traces of Grimm." Salem reminded Cinder, gesturing towards her arm.

"Hmm." Cinder grunted, seeing the flaws in her idea.

"However, if we weren't in there with her, then she wouldn't be able to access her power." Salem explained.

"So what do you propose then?" Cinder questioned.

"Well, for one, Watts would have to do the surgery, since he's the only one qualified to do so. And we could have Hazel provide 'comfort and support' throughout the surgery." Salem said with a smirk.

"What about Tyrian? Could he possibly give Ruby another jab of poison to weaken her a bit more?" Cinder asked.

"While I like the way you think, unfortunately, that would kill her on the spot. If it weren't for her aura, she would have died within minutes of the first injection." Salem explained.

"That makes sense. So we get started on this right away." Cinder said excitedly.

"Calm down Cinder. We'll do it in the morning. Watts is gonna need time to prepare as I'm sure his skills are a bit rusty. Nothing he can't handle though." Salem explained. "Plus, if we do it now, her aura will be a bit higher as she's been awake all day. If we get her before she can wake up, then her guard will be lowered since she's asleep, making the whole process a bit easier."

"I guess." Cinder replied, a bit disheartened and annoyed.

"Don't worry Cinder," Salem said, standing up and placing her hand on her shoulder. "By this time tomorrow, you'll have two working eyes."

Cinder smiled evilly as Salem made her way towards the large wooden doors.

"Oh, one more thing," Cinder added, causing Salem to stop. "I want the removal to be as painful as possible." She continued.

"Don't worry child, I wouldn't have it any other way." Salem said with an evil smirk before leaving the room.

Meanwhile, back in Ruby's "room", she was awaiting her nightly meal. She had quickly learned the feeding patterns and times. Once around mid-morning and again close to bed time. Despite being in a large palace, Salem had a pretty strict bed time around what Ruby could only assume was eleven since this place never really seemed to have a sun rise or set, just this constant reddish-black sky color that got darker or lighter depending on the time. Ruby had seen the sky only once when she first arrived but could see it's color casting an imprint on the walls.

Ruby hadn't been allowed outside her "room" since she snuck out that one day. This was beginning to lead to some claustrophobia as the room was fairly small. She had been spending most of her days resting, trying to keep her aura up so that her body could at least heal a bit. She still held high hopes for rescue which was her main motivator in keeping her aura high. Other than resting, she would pace around the room in a small tight circle when she needed to stretch her legs a bit. Besides those two things, there was really nothing else to do. Without her weapon, scroll, or anything to keep her company, it was very boring, and she was beginning to become very anxious. However, she had learned that fighting back against her captors would drain her aura and therefore her health very quickly, so by staying calm and basically mediating all day, her aura would stay high.

Right now was not one of those times of relaxation though. Ruby's nightly meal of Grimm meat and water was late, and she was beginning to become angry. Ignoring the fact she was very hungry from keeping her aura high, this was the only thing that happened in her daily life now that she could count on, and it was letting her down.

 _Calm down Ruby,_ she thought to herself. _Maybe it's on schedule, and you're just a bit hungrier than usual. Maybe this poison is beginning to take affect and you're body isn't able to keep up anymore. Stay calm._ Ruby sighed. Maybe she was right, maybe after all this time, the poison was finally getting to her. Soon, she'd be too weak to fight back against basic attacks, and then boom, her eyes would be gone. Ruby slid down the wall she was resting on and put her head in between her knees. She began to tear up but quickly got out of it.

"No more crying. You will get out of this. You will be rescued, and you will live." Ruby said to herself, slamming her fist against the ground.

"Hmph. Whatever you say." Hazel said in his dark gritty voice. Surprised, Ruby looked up to see Hazel looking down at her through the small slit in the door.

"How long have you…" Ruby began.

"Long enough. Now here's you food." Hazel said, sliding the food through the secondary slot in the door. Then, hazel through a small bowl of water through the same slot and it danced around before coming to a stop, some of the clear liquid splashing out and onto the ground. Ruby grimaced, seeing her only source of water splash wastefully onto the floor. Then Ruby noticed some things different about her food. Firstly, it was on a plate. Usually, it was just thrown onto the ground with a wet-ish slap.

Secondly, there was more than just meat on the plate. There was a small amount of berries next to the meat. Maybe a handful or two, but enough to raise great suspicion with Ruby.

"Umm, what is this?" Ruby asked Hazel, pointing towards the berries.

"Dinner." He replied.

"No shit. But what's with the berries and whatnot?" Ruby asked, rolling her eyes.

"I don't know. I was just told to give you dinner. Probably a good behavior reward." Hazel said, turning away from the door and closing both hatches. Ruby heard him mumble something as he walked away but Ruby couldn't make it out. Ruby turned back towards the plate and bowl in front of her. Without hesitation, he wolfed down the meat, knowing from experience that it wouldn't last more than five minutes. Then, she grabbed the bowl and drank all the water in a few big gulps before tossing it aside. After wiping her mouth with her sleeve, she turned he attention back towards the plate.

The berries sat there untouched in the same spot. Ruby gave the inanimate objects a dirty look and hopped up on the slab of rock she called a bed and laid down facing the ceiling. As she lay there trying to fall asleep, her stomach rumbled quietly. While the meat did fill her up a bit, it never lasted long, and it seemed like this time it lasted for only a few moments before she was hungry again.

She turned over on her side towards the plate of berries. _Maybe a few won't hurt_ she thought to herself, beginning to give into her hunger.

"No Ruby you're better than this." She said to herself quietly and forced her body to turn back over on the other side and face the wall. Once she was facing away, she tried to force her body to sleep. For a few moments, it seemed to work as she always felt weak and tired. Soon, her mind began to wander, thinking about life outside the room, her escape, and what to do once she got out. She began to make a small list. Hug her family was the first thing, then her friends, and then… eat.

Her growling stomach awoke her. She wasn't sure for how long she was asleep, but she could tell it wasn't long. She rolled back over, hoping that by some miracle, the berries were gone, or they were a figment of her imagination. Maybe she was finally losing it and just imagined the food. But as she faced her room once again, there lay the berries, still in the same spot as before.

"Grrrrrr." Ruby growled, forcing herself to sit up. She stared at the plate of berries for a decent amount of time, trying to decide what to do.

 _Just eat them, you're hungry and this is what you need._ Her mind said.

"No, they're probably poisonous and will probably kill me in my sleep." She said, arguing with her mind.

 _But you're hungry. You could die in your sleep_

"No I won't. Salem is giving me just enough to stay alive."

 _So if she's trying to keep you alive, then why would she feed you poisonous berries?_

"I don't know. Maybe I'm taking too long to die, and this is her way of speeding things up."

 _Well if you're going to die regardless, then why not just try the berries?_

"Well, I…"

 _Just have one. Maybe they're fine._

Ruby sighed. _This is it. I'm going crazy. I'm having a conversation with my own brain._ She sighed again. "Fuck it." She said out loud as she made her way towards the berries. She grabbed the plate off the floor and carried it back to her bed. She sat down and put the plate on her lap. The berries were either a dark blue or purple in color and Ruby counted roughly 25. Ruby pushed the berries around the plate with her finger, still pondering eating them or not. After a moment of just pushing them around, she finally picked one up. She twisted it around, trying to see if it had any visible deformities that would indicate it was poisonous. She did this for about a minute like she knew what she was doing and what she was looking for before sighing heavily, letting her hands droop.

"Like I even know what a poisonous berry looks like." Ruby said to herself. She brought the berry back up to her face and glanced over it for another second or two. "If this kills me, so be it." Ruby said before popping the berry in her mouth. She chewed on it for a minute trying to decide if it tasted funny. _These taste just like blue berries_ Ruby thought to herself, before wolfing down the rest of the berry without a second thought, her hunger taking over her rational thought. In less than fifteen seconds, all the berry were gone.

Once Ruby finished chewing and swallowed the last berry, her rational thought came back.

"What did I just do?" Ruby said to herself quietly.

 _You fed your hunger_ she thought.

"Great. I'm arguing with myself again. I am going crazy." Ruby said, a smirk growing across her face.

 _Well, two weeks without real human interaction can do that_ she thought.

"And now my brain is talking to me like it's a different person. Great." Ruby said.

 _Maybe I'm just the poison finally getting to you_

"Maybe you are. Maybe this is what happens when your brain gives up." Ruby said, deciding to lay down on the floor.

 _Or maybe it was the berries. Maybe they are making me seem real._

"That also could be true." Ruby said, beginning to sweat a bit. "Did the room just get hotter?"

 _No, it's the same temperature. You're just getting hotter._

"Well thank you brain for that complement. You are so sweet." Ruby said, smiling.

 _Listen to yourself. You're losing it._

"Yeah. I guess I am." Ruby said, giggling to herself. She began to sweat more profusely. "Boy it is getting hot in here. It can't be just me."

 _But it is. Think about it. The moment you ate those berries, the room got hotter and you began to act different._

"Different? How? I feel fine."

 _Yeah, exactly. You haven't been fine since you got here. And now look at you, you're giggled like a mad woman and say it's really hot. Are you sure those berries didn't have some sort of drug or chemical in them?_

"They were fine. They tasted like blueberries." Ruby said, beginning to laugh a bit louder.

 _That doesn't make them blueberries! Those were probably some type of berry similar to blue berries that makes you high. Think about it._

"Psshh, you stress too much brain. You need to relax a bit." Ruby said, beginning to take off her boots and skirt.

 _What are you doing?_

"It's really hot in here so I'm getting comfortable." Ruby said, now in just her undershirt and panties, her clothes laying next to her.

 _Fucking hell. You don't know these people. They could, do things to you if they saw you this way._

"They won't do that. They're nice people." Ruby said, her eyes beginning to feel heavy as she lay sprawled out on the floor.

 _Nice?! They kidnapped you and kept you prisoner here for two weeks! And don't you dare fall asleep on me!_

Ruby yawned. "Too late." She said before completely passing out on the floor.

 _Oh no you don't…._ The voice echoed in what seemed like an empty room. Ruby opened her eyes to see herself in a never-changing landscape that had a rainbow of colors dancing around it. Trees were red, the grass was purple, and Ruby seemed to be floating above it all, looking down. For the first time in a long time, Ruby felt true peace and serenity. There were no negative thoughts, only the sight of pure blue and orange fish jumping ever so gracefully out of the water.

Ruby floated through this landscape for what seemed like an eternity, just glancing down upon all the beautiful landscapes of large rolling mountains and beautiful beaches of endless white sands. She saw all sorts of animals, like deer and lions, all peacefully getting along. Occasionally, she would hear some sort of frantic voice yelling something out, by she just chose to ignore it and continue floating along.

However, after what seem like forever of this beautiful landscape, the colors began to fade. No longer were the fish purple and green, but grayer. The trees and grass also began to lose their color and become less and less common. Soon, the pools of clear blue water turned into dark black pools of sludge. The once graceful animals soon turned into terrifying creatures of Grimm.

Ruby no longer felt safe. The emotions of fear and unknown soon forced their way back into her body as she was now floating over the deep red and black colors of where Salem lived. From the pools of sludge rose creatures of unimaginable horrors. Ruby tried to look away but when she tried, her eyes fell upon the place where Salem resided and where she was currently held captive. She tried to push herself away from this place, but the force bringing her forward was too powerful to overcome.

Still, she struggled and struggled, tears forming in her eyes and falling effortlessly towards the ground. As Ruby struggled, an apparition of herself appeared before her. It was wearing the same outfit she was, only it was covered in a lot more slash marks, dirt, and blood. She looked to be the same age as Ruby as well. But the most defining and terrifying distinction about this version of herself was that there was a large, dirty, blood-soaked bandage covering both of her eyes, with trails of blood seeping down from the bandages. Ruby could only stare at this miniature version of herself as it hovered right in front of her face.

"I tried to warn you." The apparition said in a sad and disappointed voice.

Before Ruby could decipher what that meant, the force pulling her towards the building increased tenfold, and Ruby was yanked away from the apparition at lightning fast speed. She looked back towards the building as saw as she flew through wall after wall. She screamed in fear and panic before opening her eyes and seeing Hazel's face, right up against hers. Before she could register what was happening, she was slammed down onto her "bed" with enough force to nearly knock her out.

Her head hit the rock bed and Ruby's vision blurred and her head began to spin. She began to look down at herself and notice she was still in just her undershirt and panties, she clothes still laying in the same spot as before. She tried to place a hand on her head but found that they were being restrained by some strong force. As Ruby began to regain her vision, she realize that her arms were being held down by Hazel and her legs were both tied together and chained to the floor. As she tried to wiggle her arms, she found it incredibly difficult, if not impossible.

"When Salem first asked me to make blueberries into a sleeping drug, I'll be honest, I was a bit confused on how to go about doing so." Ruby looked to her left and saw Dr. Watts standing over a metal cart, holding a syringe. "But after a few failed attempts and several hours of mixing and testing, I finally came up with the perfect formula." He said, filling the syringe with some sort of clear liquid for a small container.

"What was…" Ruby began, her voice weak.

"A special concoction of various hallucinogenic drugs and some standard blueberries. Like I said, took some time to finalize it but in the end, it always works." Watts said, grinning.

"So I wasn't the first?" Ruby asked, still trying to regain consciousness from her obvious concussion.

"Oh heavens no. I've been using this special treat for many years now. Gives the user some feel good emotion before the worst "tumor removal" surgery of their lives." Watts said, bringing the metal cart over.

"Tumor removal?" Ruby asked before Watts placed a finger over her mouth with his gloved hand.

"No more talking. You may scream, it's actually encouraged. But no talking. Now this won't hurt… ah, who am I kidding. This is gonna hurt a lot." Watts said, before jamming the syringe into Ruby's left cheek, right below her left eye. Ruby screamed out in pain, her voice echoing through the small room and spilling out into the hallway.

"What was that for?" Hazel asked.

"A numbing agent for her face." Watts replied.

"But Salem said to make sure she's feels it." Hazel replied, a bit thrown back by Watts reply.

"And she will. However, too much pain and she'll pass out. The agent will make sure she doesn't feel enough pain too pass out. It's gonna take a minute to fully activate to if you want, you can tie up or chain her hands or whatever." Watts replied. Hazel nodded and began to tie Ruby's arms together with thick rope.

Meanwhile, Ruby's breathing was shaky, her mind and body terrified at what Watts meant by tumor removal. As she tried to figure out what that meant, she became aware to the fact the left side of her face was growing numb. Suddenly, she felt her arms being force over her head. When she looked, she saw her wrists were tied together and being suspended by a heavy metal chain. The chain was hooked onto the spot on the ceiling Ruby either failed to notice before or just didn't care enough.

A few moments later, Watts walked over a flicked Ruby's left cheek. Ruby saw him do it but couldn't feel a thing. He continued to flick her cheek as he asked Ruby a question.

"Do you feel this?" Watts asked.

"N…No." Ruby replied, worried.

"Great! Time for the removal. Now the first part, and the hardest, is going to be keeping the eye open. Now there are a number of ways we can do this. We can go simple and just tape it open, or maybe use some clamps for pinch the eye lid to the cheek and forehead. And if worse comes to worse, we can always just break the eye socket and use some spreaders." Watts explained.

"W…w…wait. I thought you said this was tumor removal?" Ruby asked, now extremely terrified.

Watts sighed and laughed. "My child. It is tumor removal. You unfortunately have two tumors. One here," Watts poked Ruby's left eye, causing her to flinch. "And here," Watts then poked her right eye, eliciting the same reaction from Ruby. "Now usually, we would remove both at the same time. However, by special request, we are only removing the left tumor today. I personally disagree with this as there is a chance for infection after the surgery is complete but there isn't an arguing with the boss." Watts said.

Ruby was now in tears of pure fear. They were going to take her eyes out. She knew this day was coming, but now she learned she was going to have to go through it twice. Plus, she always thought they would do it when she was asleep or maybe unconscious. Not this. Never this. Ruby began to struggle, trying to break free of her constraints. She was suddenly forced to a stop by Hazel, who grabbed Ruby by the neck.

"Please don't do that during the surgery. You're only going to make things worse." Watts said in a monotone voice, half looking at Ruby as he prepared his tools on the metal cart.

"Please. Please." Ruby begged softly, pleading for her safety.

"Begging isn't gonna save you." Hazel said in a threatening tone.

"Alright. Let's start simple." Watts said, grabbing some tape. He forced Ruby's eye open and place tap both above and below the eye to restrict the movement of the muscles in and around her eye. Ruby resisted the tape and it soon began to break loose, causing her eye to close with force.

Dr. Watts sighed. "It's never that easy." He said before reaching over and grabbing some small brass clamps. He then pinched certain parts of Ruby forehead and cheek to once again try and restrict the movement or Ruby's eyelid. In most cases, this would work. However, because of Ruby's near 24 hour resting. Ruby still held a good amount of muscle control and was able to move those muscles around enough to cause the clamps to slip off and lose the grip.

Unfortunately for Ruby, one of those clamps broke lose and launched up into the air and ironically hit Watts in the left eye, causing momentary blindness.

Watts recoiled in pain, covering his eye. Ruby now had a look of determination on her face. _I'm not going down without a fight_ she thought. And for a moment, she believe she was, until Watts recovered enough to give Hazel a command.

"Hazel, break the eye socket. But make sure you don't damage the eye." Watts said angerly. Hazel nodded and turned his attention towards Ruby, who now had a look of fear on her face.

"Please. Don't." Ruby shook her head rapidly, trying to discourage Hazel, but to no avail. Hazel balled up his hand into a fist and with nearly full force, punched Ruby in the side of the face right next to the eye socket. Ruby screamed in pain and recoiled, but Hazel grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look at him, and repeated this process until the area to the left and below her eye was nothing but a bloody mess.

Once finished, Hazel's knuckles had a considerate amount of Ruby's blood on it. Ruby was now weeping in pain, terrified of the man standing over her. She could not see out of her left eye anymore and doubted it even worked as even through the numbness, she could feel the area where Hazel had punched her was definitely broken. She laid there for a few moment, blood and tears mixing together and running down the side of her face and pooling on the rock bed. She thought to herself the worst was over, but she was wrong.

It took a few moments for Watts to recover fully, and even still the vision in his eye was not perfect. Once he was up, he looked over at Ruby and even he was a bit thrown back by the state of Ruby's face.

"Hazel, I told you to break the eye socket, not to mutilate her face. You could have done some serious harm to her eye." Watts said, sounding worried for Ruby's safety.

"I had some pent-up anger and I let it get the best of me. I'll take full responsibility for any damage to the eye." Hazel replied, now standing in the corner of the room, wiping the blood off his fist.

"Let's hope you don't have to." Watts said, turning away from Hazel. "As for you, you caused me a lot of trouble, young lady." Watts said, looking back towards Ruby.

"Please. I'm begging you. Don't hurt me. Please." Ruby said through the tears, her voice cracking and showing clear signs of fear.

"Oh, we're well past the stage of begging for mercy. We tried the easy route and you decided you didn't like it. So now we do it the hard way. And I'll make sure you don't forget it." Watts said evilly, grabbing ahold of a pair of padded plyers and a small scalpel. Ruby continued to beg and plead as Watts approached to no avail.

Suddenly and without any real warning, Watts forced apart Ruby's eyelid, causing the already broken bones to grind and smash together, eliciting more cries of pain and terror from Ruby. The pain was insurmountable but only got worse as Watts grabbed ahold Ruby's left eye with the plyers and forceable pulled it out of its socket along with the optic nerve before letting them lay on Ruby's cheek.

Ruby's vision was now all over the place, with one eye looking at the ceiling and the other looking horizontally across the room towards Hazel. And while Ruby's couldn't see her other eye, she could faintly feel it on her cheek, which terrified her even more than the sight.

"Just checking for damages, won't take more than a moment." Watts said. Ruby could faintly feel Watts picking up and rotating her eye. Soon, he placed the eye back on her cheek.

"You got lucky Hazel, no damage. Now time for step 2, removal. This step is the most dangerous as there is a chance Ruby could bleed out. Hazel, come here." Hazel walked over to Ruby's side. He could see a large amount of blood spilling out of Ruby's now empty eye socket. Ruby herself was quietly weeping to herself.

"I know. It's a bit weird and creepy and overall unnerving to look at it, so don't. Just grab some of those bandages and paper towels and be ready for a lot of blood." Watts said. Hazel nodded and held both items in his hand and stood next to Watts, who now held the scalpel.

"Alright Ruby, you're going to feel a bit of a tug." Watts said. Ruby only began weeping a bit more heavily and mumbled something that no one in the room could fully understand. Watts turned his attention to where the optic nerve was emerging from the eye socket. He grabbed a pair of glasses with small magnifying glasses on them in order to see more clearly what he was doing. With careful and precise movement and cuts, Watts began cutting Ruby's optic nerve. Ruby winced from the pain and moved slightly, causing Watts to have to abandon the cut for a moment.

"Ruby, if you keep moving, you're going to make this more painful on not just yourself. Got it?" Watts said tensely. All he got was a sad, pathetic whimper in return that he assumed was a yes and continued on, this time without any movement from Ruby. There was the occasional "Make it stop" from Ruby in a weak voice as she could feel the blade cutting away at her optic nerve, but it was to no avail. The cutting process took no more than five minutes and soon enough, Ruby's eye was free from her body. Watts immediately placed it a small cooler to keep it cold and ordered Hazel to stop the bleeding.

As Hazel tended to the large amount of blood seeping from Ruby's now hollow eye socket, Ruby was on the verge of passing out. While the numbness had kept her awake, she had nearly completely tuned out of the area surrounding her. She had fallen into her own little bubble where she believed she was safe.

Meanwhile, Hazel had nearly stopped all the bleeding and Watts was applying a mixture of fire and ice dust with a special healing chemical.

"Alright Ruby, this will help heal the broken bones and the damage done to your eye socket. It's going to burn for a bit then it'll feel better. We'll leave you with some bandages and an eyepatch. It's going to take a few days until you're going to be used to the whole, having one eye thing, if you're still alive by then. Got it?" Watts asked. He received no reply. "Do you understand, Ruby?" He asked again. Upon not getting another reply, he looked over at Ruby, who only remaining eye looked glassed over.

"Welp, she's gone." Watts said, beginning to apply the healing mixture.

"Like, dead gone?" Hazel asked, suddenly worried.

"No, no. Her body finally had enough and basically shut down. She's basically unconscious but with her eyes open." Watts explained.

"So she's unresponsive. Do we have any idea how long until she comes back?" Hazel asked.

"It varies. Could be a few hours, could be a few days, who knows. My best guess with her is probably a day or two. As long as we give her water, she'll survive. I'll tell Salem to increase her water bowls to three a day. That should keep her alive. Now if you excuse me, I have an eye replacement surgery to complete." Watts said, grabbing his metal cart and wheeling it out of the room, leaving just Ruby and Hazel.

Hazel glanced around the room. He saw all the bowls scattered around. He saw her clothes haphazardly discarded on the floor and noticed the pool of blood on the bed that was dripping its way down the side of the bed and on to the floor. Hazel, feeling remorseful for his action, proceeded to pick up the bowls, wiping down the blood from the floor and bed, and fold Ruby's clothes and place them next to her on her bed. He then untied and unhooked her from all her restraints, letting her limbs hang loosely off the side.

Once he had finished, he made his way towards the door, but not before looking back at Ruby one last time. Her eye still looked glassy and her body looked lifeless, but he could see her chest rising and falling as she breathed.

Hazel sighed. "I don't know if you can hear me, but if it's any condolence, I wish it didn't have to come to that." Hazel then proceeded to close and lock the heavy wooden door, leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts, and blood.

 **Author's Note:**

 **Okay listen. I know eye replacement surgery isn't a real thing in our world. But in a universe were people can fly and control the elements, how far off is eye replacement surgery?**

 **Anyways, that's all I have to say. Congratulations if you made it this far, I know the eye part was hard to read. It was hard to write.**

 **Anyways, Follow, Favorite, and Review.**

 **Peace.**


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